Pushing the boat out: The Riverside Resource Recovery facility

Work is underway in south-east London to construct one of the UK"s most efficient energy recovery plants. It is set to process municipal waste from households and businesses in four London boroughs and transport 500,000 tonnes by tug and barge by Malcolm Ward Despite many successful recycling initiatives, the City of London is facing the crisis of how to manage its residual household waste in a sustainable way that does not increase lorry movements on the capital"s highways and that complies with the "proximity principle", i.e. that waste should be treated close to the area in which it arose. An artist"s impression of the Riverside Resource Recovery (RRR) facility in Belvedere, London Click here to enlarge image An innovative solution has come from Cory Environmental, which is constructing a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant on the banks of the Thames at Belvedere, south-east London. Key to Cory"s sustainable solution is the fact that the majority of the waste will arrive at the Riverside Resource Recovery (RRR) plant by water, transported on the River Thames by a fleet of tugs and barges. Waste supply Cory has a 30-year contract with the Western Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA) to handle over 500,000 tonnes of municipal waste a year from four London boroughs – Lambeth, Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Cory also holds contracts with the City of London and Westminster Council. Residual waste is currently placed in containers and transported down the Thames in 300-tonne capacity barges to a landfill site in Essex, but this site is due to close in 2011. Cory, and London, therefore faced the twin challenge of where to dispose of the waste, as well as the problem of 500,000 tonnes (551,000 tons) of it having to be transported by road, with the subsequent loss of the skills, knowledge and tradition of the river transport operation. River transport Cory has been operating on the River Thames for over 110 years, and is the largest lighterage operator in London, transporting around 600,000 tonnes of waste a year by water. The company currently operates a fleet of seven tugs and 47 barges. Four new Shoalbuster 2208 tugs, designed to be used in shallow water, have been commissioned by Cory for the RRR Facility. One of the existing fleet of tugs, the Regain, will be kept and used as a back-up to the new vessels. Cory Environmental"s CEO Malcolm Ward (right), with Riverside Resource Recovery Director, Peter Gerstrom Click here to enlarge image The RRR plant is the last piece in a larger integrated waste management solution from Cory that involves tugs, barges, transfer facilities, civic amenity sites and a new materials recycling facility, currently being built in Wandsworth, which will deal with 84,000 tonnes of mixed recyclables per year. When operational the RRR facility will be one of the UK"s most efficient energy recovery plants, processing waste from households and businesses in central London. It will be capable of managing an average of 585,000 tonnes of residual waste each year, with an annual throughput of up to 670,000 tonnes. Site development Detailed site investigation started at the site in spring 2007, followed by archaeological work in summer 2007, and site remediation work later that year. Essential ecological mitigation measures were also carried out during this period. With the appointment of Breheny as the contractor for the access road improvements, work commenced at the beginning of 2008 on the complete reconstruction of the main highway leading to the development area. This was completed in July 2008, enabling work to start on the construction of the RRR facility. How the plant will work Construction and commissioning of the plant is expected to be complete by mid 2011 when, following a period of hot and cold commissioning, the plant will begin operating. For the first four years, Cory staff will operate the plant under the guidance and expertise of Von Roll Inova (VRI) – the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner. The experience and knowledge gained during this time will be rolled out to other Cory developments across the UK. All but 85,000 tonnes of waste will be loaded onto barges at Cory"s existing river-served transfer stations, delivered in enclosed containers to the plant via the River Thames, and off-loaded at the new jetty by container handling cranes. The containers will be placed on specialist vehicles which will transport them to a fully-enclosed waste reception hall in the main building. Road-borne waste deliveries will access the waste reception hall directly by ramp. Once inside, all vehicles will discharge their loads into the waste storage bunker. Air from the reception hall and bunker area will be drawn into the waste combustion units creating a slight negative pressure which will prevent the escape of odours, dust or litter. The RRR facility will use conventional moving grate combustion technology, with a thermal efficiency of around 27%. This places it at the forefront of UK and European WTE technology for electricity generation. The waste combustion process will be carefully and continuously monitored to ensure, for example, that minimum combustion temperatures exceed 850°C. Heat energy will be recovered from the flue gases through specialist, high efficiency boilers. The turbine has the capability to supply up to 30 MW of steam/heat and up to 72 MW of electricity, approximately 6 MW of this will be used in the plant with the remainder, generating at 11 kV and transforming on-site up to 132 kV for export to the grid. The plant will therefore generate enough electricity to serve around 66,000 households. The principal residue from the process will be bottom ash. Approximately 180,000 tonnes of bottom ash, including metals, will be produced each year. This will be collected in the ash bunker and loaded into covered containers which will be transported onto barges and sent down the River Thames for metal recovery and recycling into road building and construction aggregates. All aspects of the plant operation will be controlled and monitored to the strict standards of the EU Waste Incineration Directive. Main contractors VRI was appointed as the EPC partner following a rigorous selection process during which Cory was advised by Fichtner Consultant Engineers. VRI is a Swiss constructor of WTE plants and one of the market leaders in this sector. It is responsible for providing and installing the technology at the RRR facility, as well as operation and maintenance support for the first four years of the plant"s operation, following completion of construction. Costain was appointed by VRI as the civil engineering contractor for the project. Funding Cory"s RRR plant will be the largest, most efficient and among the most environmentally sound WTE plants in the UK, but it requires a significant financial investment. The £465 million (US$764 million) debt raised from lead arrangers Bank of Ireland, Barclays and Calyon is currently being syndicated. Malcolm Ward is the CEO of Cory Environmental e-mail: info@coryenvironmental.co.uk This article is on-line. Please visit www.waste-management-world.com